Copyright-It’s a Two-Way Street

To prove that support for strong copyright protection doesn’t equate to being in the pocket of the major corporate entertainment industries, I call your attention to an article in the Washington Post last week. The article described how Fox, Virgin and Microsoft had used photos from Internet photo sharing sites in their commercial ventures without permission. The article quoted one person as saying, "I guess copyright only pertains to them."

Well, it doesn’t. This doesn’t require lengthly legal analysis. It is a simple case of using content without permission.

The entertainment giants should know better, both legally and politically. In short, I recommend these companies quickly issue a mea culpa and pay the picture owners fairly for the use of their content.